Oh boy. Sit down as it's kind of a long story. Here it goes...
Basically I was one of the few kids in my group that had a DC right at launch. I didn't really know this guy too well, but he hung out with some of the guys in the group. (Didn't really engage with too many of us though.) Just to make things easier, let's call him Terry. Soon as Terry found out I had a Dreamcast, he tried to get really chummy, and begged, and begged me for two weeks straight to lend him my console.
Me (like a total idiot) finally gave in and agreed. I bring the console to school and we both agree he'll keep it for a day or two and bring it back. That very night, he calls me at home, saying it won't turn on. My heart sinks and I keep trying to tell him to try and unplug it for a bit, or power it on with different games. He claims nothing works and that he "found short curly hairs" in it. I don't even know what to make of the last bit, and just demand that he returns it tomorrow.
Sure enough, next day at school, Terry brings it back. Along with the console, he tries to give me a tiny zip-lock bag with...what looks like pubes in it. He claims he found them in my Dreamcast, and makes sure to say it loud enough and hold it out long enough for everyone to see and hear. At this point, I'm pissed but realize it's all totally my fault for trusting essentially a stranger. I chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on.
Fast forward a month or two, I'm at a birthday party and Terry's name comes up. (Turns out he left an impression on many as being a habitual liar about all sorts of shit.) I proceed to tell my sob-story. At which point one of my friend's friend lets me know that Terry totally bought a Dreamcast on launch day. He said for "some reason" (we'll get to this later) his console stopped working, and he couldn't play anything for a while. Until suddenly, it all started working just fine again.
Basically, this dude had a Dreamcast, and he ruined it. Came to me to "borrow" mine, and switched it with his bricked one, and used freaking "pubes" of all things as an alibi. The guy at the party regularly tutored him or his sister (not really sure), so he asked me if I still had his ruined one that he gave me. (I still hoped one day it'd magically boot up again.) I gave it to the dude, and he totally ninja-switched his bricked DC with my working one and returned mine to me.
Oh as to how his OG console that he bought just magically stopped working: The guy at the party said one time he walk in on his room, and Terry, in a totally frazzled manner, looked like he just hurriedly shoved his uh, member, back in his briefs. With his Dreamcast on his bed with him, and him wearing nothing else other than his underwear that he possibly just put on as he saw the guy walking in. That along with his freaking choice of an alibi that he tried to spin on me was just...pure WTF-ery.
I shudder to think of what he might have actually tried/done with my actual Dreamcast, but at least it seemed clean and was still working.
Fuck Terry. Fuck him right in the ass with a cactus laced with acid.
